The Science of Repression
by megapidgeots
Summary: Emotions are difficult to study, especially when one's subject doesn't really want to understand their own. Huntress Wizard has been working as Betty lab assistant and test subject for some time, and her feelings towards the human woman are becoming difficult to handle. Set between "Betty" and "You Forgot Your Floaties"
Emotions tended to come in big, intense waves.

Sometimes they came in the forms of unbounded excitement, bursting through her veins like fire. She felt like she could traverse the entire continent in a single day, or win any battle. Other times they came in the form of a claw grasping hungrily at her chest, violently climbing its way up her throat, strangling her. Either way, they crashed down on Huntress Wizard at the worst times, and she was almost never ready for them.

She'd been working alongside Betty, seemingly the happiest she'd been in a while, when one hit her.

The two had met under unusual circumstances. Huntress Wizard had been dozing on a tree, as she often did in the mid-afternoon, when she heard a rustling behind her. She'd assumed it was a squirrel and promptly ignored it. However, she was fairly certain that the majority of squirrels did not scribble in notebooks while muttering to themselves. Some might- she wasn't a squirrel expert, but none of the ones she'd met did.

She remembered distinctly turning around, bow and arrow at the ready, and being met by an absolute Goddess.

Alright, that was a bit melodramatic, but she was pretty darn great, to be fair.

Betty had not reacted ideally to an arrow being pointed in her direction, unless one counted shrieking, flailing, falling, and breaking her leg as "ideal", but Huntress Wizard did not.

That said, all things considered, Betty was rather relaxed about the whole broken leg thing. That or just shocked- Huntress Wizard had never figured out which it was. Regardless, she was open to talking once Huntress Wizard whipped together a spell to heal her leg. Really, it was more like removing pain, but she wasn't very talkative, and explaining the details of the spell, she felt, would lead to a longer conversation.

She soon learned that she didn't quite mind long conversations with Betty, however.

The events that followed accumulated to her being taken in as Betty's sort of lab assistant and occasional test subject. She was very vague about the details, but Huntress Wizard didn't particularly mind. In spite of the cool demeanor she was known for, she didn't especially enjoy being isolated constantly, so it was a nice change of pace.

Betty's humble abode was a nice, exclusive, two bedroom one bath, absolute mess of a cave. Water dripped at a constant pace from the roof, to the point where Huntress Wizard sometimes found herself lying awake at night, listening to the steady drips, ringing in her head, constantly. The floors were flooded with debris from dozens of different eras, some of which seemed to date back from before the Mushroom war, and in the midst of it all, Betty had managed to construct a lab.

That lab is where the aforementioned wave of emotion hit Huntress Wizard, about a month after she began working for Betty.

She remembered Betty mentioning someone- a fiance, and then it hit. Breathing became hard, her chest tightened, her knees grew weak. She tried to reply, to seem normal. She vaguely sensed Betty coming closer to her and, oh Glob, was she putting her hand on her shoulder? Huntress Wizard wasn't the best at masking her emotions. She had to get better at that.

She took a deep breath, made some vague hand motions, muttered some words that had long since lost whatever meaning they may have had, and it was over, buried.

She'd worry about it some other time.

She blinked up at Betty, whose head was tilted slightly, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. When she spoke, it wasn't particularly concerned- more curious, "What just happened to you? Are you alright?"

Huntress Wizard nodded, "I'm fine."

"It doesn't seem that way. You looked like you were gonna cry."

Huntress Wizard took a step back, shaking her head, "No, I'm fine. I don't cry."

Betty frowned, but didn't immediately say anything else. She walked back over to her desk and dotted something down in her notebook, then brought her pen up to her mouth, chewing lightly at the end of it. She glanced over at Huntress Wizard, then back again at her notes, before finally speaking, "Does everyone in this world hide their emotions like that?"

Huntress Wizard avoided eye contact, "I don't know what you mean."

Betty sighed, flipping through the flood of papers sprawled out across her desk. She cursed under her breath several times as papers fell to the ground, but eventually pulled one out. She turned to Huntress Wizard and presented the paper. The notes didn't mean much to her, so she just shrugged. Betty frowned, "In all the magic beings I've studied, they never seem to be sad for long. They get sad, then something happens, and they act like they were never sad to begin with, but that's not all," she flipped the paper over to reveal yet another set of notes Huntress Wizard couldn't comprehend, "even non-wizards seem to do this. The only difference is that you seem to erase your emotions with magic. Everyone else just got good at hiding them," she tossed the paper back on the disorganized stack, "it's weird."

"Why's it matter?"

Betty tapped her foot, "If I'm gonna help Simon, I need to know what separates Wizards from other people. Is Wizard sadness different from regular sadness? This world is odd. It's like nothing's the same any more."

Huntress Wizard shuffled closer to Betty, considered resting a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but ultimately decided against it, "Uh, is Simon that fiance you mentioned?"

Betty nodded, "You probably call him the Ice King, and-"

"What?" Huntress Wizard interrupted, shock jolting the words out of her, "that bozo?"

Betty sighed, setting to removing clutter from the ground as she often did when she wanted to be distracted. Huntress Wizard sat on a rock to watch- she found that when she tried to help, she ended up with arms full of stuff she wasn't sure what to do with.

Betty didn't usually talk when she got like this. She became all thoughtful, wrapped in her own mind. It was interesting, really. As such, Huntress Wizard jumped in surprise when she actually spoke, "He wasn't always like that. I don't know exactly how it went down, but after the nuclear apocalypse he changed," she stood up, fiddling with something in her hands, "I guess everyone did."

Huntress Wizard didn't answer at first, expecting her to ramble on as she often did, but when no continuation came. She tried to make eye contact with her companion, tried to formulate her words carefully, but she wasn't much good at it- she wasn't used to interaction, "Change isn't bad, right?"

Betty laughed, but Huntress Wizard didn't hear any joy in it, "No, I guess not. It just makes my job hard," she sighed, falling back into her chair, "sometimes I think it woulda been easier if I hadn't jumped through the portal. I could have helped Simon. Then again, I guess we woulda just died in the apocalypse," she blinked at the ceiling, "that might not have been the worst thing ever."

"I'm glad you're here," Huntress Wizard blurted, surprising herself.

"Uh, thanks."

"Hey, how about we do some more experiments? Have you watched me sleep? I sleep like a log- literally."

Betty raised an eyebrow, "I watched you sleep the first night you were here, actually. Did I not tell you that?"

"Uh, no."

Betty hummed to herself, tapping her fingers on the table, "I think I need to find another Wizard to study. Diversify my research."

Huntress Wizard nodded, "Uh, sure! I know tons of Wizards. I can get you into Wizard City."

"I already know how to get into Wizard City. It isn't actually much of a secret."

Huntress Wizard frowned, "Right, well, I can sure you around."

Betty smiled, "Yeah, sounds good," she shuffled around in a pile of objects next to the table, humming to herself. She pulled out a heavy-looking rectangular object and flipped it over a few times, "hey, this is an old video game console."

Huntress Wizard peered over her shoulder, squinting at the item, "What's it do?"

"Uh, lets you play video games?"

"Oh."

"Why don't you take this back to your place? Consider it a gift," she shoved it into Huntress Wizard's hands.

She blinked down at the strange object, "But I mostly live with you now."

"Yeah, but you'll wanna go back there sometime."

"I guess so."

"Go on then, I'll be here when you get back," Betty waved her hand, "I'm just gonna organize some things."

Huntress Wizard nodded and wandered out of the cave. She examined the item in her hands, wondering what it meant. People didn't tend to give gifts to people that they didn't feel some level of affection towards, right? Did it mean something? Not like, romantic affection right? She had a fiance.

Still, the fleeting idea made her feel lighter, made her heart flutter in spite of her doubts. She couldn't imagine someone as wonderful as Betty having feelings for her, but she supposed it wasn't impossible.

She arrived at her home and was greeted by an awful stench. She had left the place in a hurry, leaving whatever food remained. As it turned out, meat exposed to air didn't fare well after a month or so, especially when magic kept most animals from entering to eat the remains. She absentmindedly waved her hand in the general direction of the pantry to summon some vines to pull the rotting carcasses into the ground. Her attention was still mostly fixed on her gift.

She examined the console further. It had frayed wires attached to it, which looked vaguely familiar. She looked around her living room, her eyes eventually finding an old television. In the time she'd been away, vines had begun to grow around it, again. She'd never figured out how to make that thing work. Maybe Betty could help her. Would Betty even want to visit her place?

The last question rattled around in her mind for a moment. Had Betty been implying that earlier? When she was talking about putting the console in her place. Did she want to play video games with her?

Oh Glob, she was dense.

She placed the console on the ground next to the old television, making sure the ground wasn't too wet, and set off back to the cave. She cursed silently to herself as she went- she'd spent so long meandering along on her walk home, staring at the gift, thinking about the implications. She'd look like a fool coming back, hours later.

She landed lightly in front of the cave and peered inside, "Betty?" she called.

No response.

She wandered inside, glancing around. She place felt empty. The floors were still cluttered, though a bit less so. Betty's notes had been cleared of the table. The usual shuffling that went on throughout the day was gone.

She approached the table, and found there was only one piece of paper left. She blinked down at it. On it was more careful writing than Betty's usual scrawl.

 _Huntress Wizard,_

 _I know you were really hoping to continue to help me, but I don't think it's gonna work out. You're a cool gal' but I gotta focus on Simon._

 _Sorry to tell you like this. I guess I've never been one for making people upset. I never know how to react._

 _Later,_

 _Betty._

Huntress Wizard stared at the note for a while. It was so short, so nonchalant.

She felt anger bubbling inside of her, frustrated tears fighting their way up. She breathed deeply, trying to get her emotions under control.

In the end, sadness won over.

It crashed on her, winning over her best attempts to keep it at bay. It felt awful, suffocating. She felt betrayed. So, so, betrayed. She took a deep breath, once, twice.

She flicked her wrist, muttered those same words again. She was so used to it at this point.

The sadness dissipated.

It was a problem for another day.


End file.
